He should have lied. Seth knew he would have damned himself to oblivion, but he should have lied. What was the point of telling the truth if it made her cry? If he knew this would have happened... he would have lied.
"But it wasn't me!" Seth cried out in protest, but it could not reach her. Her eyes watered in burning anger and freezing fear, but Seth wished that was all he had seen. For within those two glaring eyes, disbelief and denial consumed her soul..
The trust they'd built for so long lay in ruins before him. At that moment, all he wanted to do was hide. Far away from those betrayed and terrified eyes. How he wished to undo everything. If only he lied... if only he denied it. Just where did it go so wrong?
The red hair tried to wrack his brain for an answer. Anything to make sense of this madness, yet it was all for naught. The weeping form of the girl he loves was simply too much for the young man. All he wanted to do was to make it stop. No matter the price. "Lucy," Seth tried to reach out once more, desperate. "i-it wasn't m-me, y-you have to believe me. It w-wasn't-"
The words died on his tongue when Lucy suddenly stood still. For a moment, he feared the worst when her anguished eyes suddenly vanished into a blank stare. And then, blood-lust. Lucy suddenly bolted towards one of the abandoned daggers.
"W-wait! I-" Seth narrowly avoided a lethal strike, quickly retreating. "Stop! I don't want to fight you!" Seth pleaded on deaf ears as the young lady simply frowned in frustration.
"Slippery bastard." The young man froze, barely believing the sheer coldness in her voice. He barely had a second to register her contempt as she bounded after him.
"Lucy, please!" Seth cried out in dismay, barely sidestepping a lunge that would have pierced his lung. Unfortunately for him, his balance was off as he stumbled to the ground. Fortunately for him, however, the scarred lady overestimated her reach and fell flat on her stomach.
Seth quickly regains his balance as he pleaded out once more. "Stop! Just stop, damn you! I am not him. Whoever that bastard was, it was not me! I-"
"Damn it, flower head! You shouldn't have wasted all of it!" she spat out in frustration as she stumbled back on her legs awkwardly. Her breathing was sharp and shallow as she struggled to regain her control, but it mattered little for Seth. His thoughts were somewhere else.
Wait... what did she just say? Seth pondered in silence, eyeing the young lady carefully this time. Though his heart still aches, the young man manages to bury his dismay forcibly. A kind distraction from the turmoil within.
She turned towards Seth. "Just stay still, will you?" She sneered before approaching with caution this time. The blood-lust was still burning from within, but it was much tamer now. Controlled. "This doesn't have to be painful." Cold. Her voice was far too cold. Not distant. Cold.
This... this was not her. He may be pulling straws in pure desperation, but Seth did not recognize who the girl who stood before him. Too cold. Too... relentless. It can't be her. It's just can't! And if she's not her... then who is she? "W-who... who are you?" Seth whispered, though it felt more like an echo rebounding through the cold forest as she stood still. Eyes widening slightly as her shoulders tensed.
The young maiden silently stared back. Her hostility was as clear as daylight, but she remained quiet. Seth thought he would never get a reply when she suddenly smiled. "Take a guess, gobs. Who else could it be?" she innocently replied, as Seth's eyes trembled.
Her tone was perfect, her smile was immaculate as he first saw it. Yet Seth went rigid as he tried to control his beating heart. Everything was just as he remembered, but the warmth. There was simply no warmth within her voice, only cold steel.
"Y-you're not... you're not her. You're not, Lucy." Seth muttered in horror, her smile disappeared in an instant. A terrible scowl graced her eyes as Seth felt his stomach dropped.
"Tsk, perceptive bastard." She sneered at the stupefied man. Once more, his mind was thrown into turmoil. So many questions, so little time. Yet through all that, there was one he needed to know, and he needed it to be answered now.
"W-who are you? W-what did you do to her?!" He roared in panic as the young lady scoffed.
"It was my body to begin with. The flower head was just... lucky." She paused before a derisive chuckle soon followed. "Though I doubt our existence is anything but fortunate." A bitter laugh escaped her lips.
"Who are you then?" Seth asked. His voice grew firmer as he quickly steeled his expression. The initial panic was gone, replaced by a determination that rivals her steel.
The young woman fell silent, seizing up Seth as his muscles tensed. "A dead man doesn't need to know." Her eyes bled into gold. In a blink of an eye, she disappeared. Seth felt his blood screaming at him to move. Tapping into his reservoir, golden dust condense within his palm, before it exploded from his hands into a showering dust of gold.
The young man caught the blow mere inches away from his neck. If he had willed his relic bow back mere seconds later, he would have died. The young maiden’s eyes widened in recognition. It trembled in fear for a moment, before it drowned in hatred within a heartbeat.
"I knew it. It was yours all along." She sneered contemptibly, lashing out once more with a sharp stab.
The steel grazes Seth's right cheek, but he barely flinches in pain. The adrenaline in his blood, the power in his vein... the stranger before him. Pain was the last thing on his mind. There were things he now feared even more than death. He never thought it was possible, yet here he was, desperately trying to subdue her without harming her as he swung his bow like a club.
She evaded with grace as if she was used to it. Seth quickly buried his disbelief, however, as he ducked from a violent slash. "Who are you? What-" The words died prematurely as Seth felt a searing pain on his left leg. He looked down to see the dagger stabbing into his body.
No! Focus! Ask later! Seth grimaced painfully through barred teeth as he avoided another stab.
Seth swung his bow once more, and once more, she avoided. Sensing a weakness, she went from another stab, his right leg this time. Seth tried to dodge, but it was too late. She grinned in glee as she watched the dagger landed on his- the light in her eyes died, reverting to blue once more. And Seth did not hesitate to exploit it as he quickly brought his bow low with speed.
He did not dare to use vekra and risked hurting her. Thankfully, the speed of a champion was still faster than that of a human, especially on an exhausted one. Seth twisted his bow with her right hand inside, pulling her with it to the ground and disarming her.
Her eyes went wide as Seth locked her in place awkwardly with his bow. All he needed to do was to pull a solar shard in place and fire it. Three seconds, and she would be dead. The thought never crosses his mind, however, as his eyes tremble with adrenaline.
"Answer me, who are you? What have you done to Lucy?" Seth snarled as she sneered back, refusing to back down.
"It is my body. Mine." Seth frowned as she tried to break free. His response was only holding her firmly in place. "Lucy was never my name. The flower head only took it in a hurry. And as always, didn't think it through." Her words only brought more questions than answers.
She kept speaking as if she was there from the start. That she came before Lucy. It sounded insane, a lunatic out of her mind conjuring stories that only the mad could come up... unless. A memory clicked into place. "...Emma?" Seth whispered, and the result was immediate. Emma went stiff for a moment, her eyes glinting with familiarity with the name before it hardened back.
"T-that's your name, isn't it? Emma La Larum?" Her silence was more than enough to convince Seth as he quickly pushed on. "Y-you said you know what happened to her, right? To Lucy?" His breathing hitched when Emma hatefully spats out.
"Why would I ever tell you, murderer?" Seth almost lost his grip before it tightened once more.
"I have never done anything to her! She- no, you two kept saying I've killed you! I could never do such a thing! I-"
"-love her?" Emma cuts off with a mocking smirk as Seth steeled his nerves. "The last man who claimed to love us, ordered for our death." Her eyes soften for a moment, glistening ever so slightly as if it was quietly mourning that Seth could only guess.
It did not last, however, twisting into a horrible macabre of hatred. "I made sure it will be his last." Emma spat out coldly. Her sapphire eyes flickered so coldly that one could have mistaken it for winter. Seth felt cold. He struggled to control his nerves from shaking as it trembles in fear.
But it was never for him. Not once did he fear for his life. Only... only for her. The young man could feel it. He could sense she was slipping farther and farther away from him, beyond his reach. Still, he pushes on. The alternative was far more terrible.
"Please, just let me speak to her. I-"
"Why would I ever do that?" Seth flinches at her glare. It was not fair. To use the face of the maiden he loves, to drown him in guilt of the things he had never done. It was just not fair. "You may have forgotten Seth, but I never could..." Her eyes, as strong as steel, suddenly went soft. "...she never could." Emma said with melancholy.
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"...But it wasn't me..." He quietly whispered as Emma stared back. "...I-I didn't- it wasn't me! It was the other one! He doesn't speak for me! Why am I have to be the one to pay for it?!" Seth screamed out in injustice. The things they had convicted against him, things he would gladly die before even considering it. It was maddening.
"I have done nothing to hurt her! I cared for her! I've done and given the best I can to help her! I-I!... I love her." He strangled the words out of his throat. Everything felt so heavy. He could have shouldered lies and slander the world would throw at him.
He would stand in defiance and refuse to bow down to their whims... but... from her? After all they had been through, no matter how short it had been, this... this... this was how it would end? From a crime of a future he had no part in? It was... unfair.
"...Lies wouldn't work against me." Seth looked up, ready to scream in denial when he saw the doubt in her eyes. When he saw a thread of light in the darkness.
"I love her." Seth repeated, his voice held firm in conviction and desperation.
Emma's eyes hardened once more into suspicion and doubt. "Words are far easier than-"
"I love her." Seth repeated, emerald eyes refusing the back down from doubtful sapphire. "I-it may have started with my curiosity back then. I d-did help her then, only for the chance to learn her secrets." He pauses, gathering his words in a painful eternity of a second before he resumes.
"But I love her." His voice was barely above a whisper, but it might as well have been a roar that shook the forest as the sapphire eyes shook in disbelief. "Nothing would change that. I... I love her too much to lie. I am ready to give up everything if it meant to win her back." His voice quivered, threatening to break, but he held on.
"All that I ask is for you to give me a chance. One chance, that is all I need," Seth pleaded before Emma's doubtful yet hesitating eyes. "I could prove it. I will prove it!" So close! He was so close! Seth refuses to surrender even an inch as he continued. "All you have to do is trust me, so please... just give me a chance."
He ended, reaching out desperately for her to understand. Everything he had said was true. He could see it; Emma could see it. Her sapphire eyes flickered hesitantly; torn between the choice she was given. All Seth could do was wait and pray.
After what seemed to be a moment of infinity, she finally made her choice. "...I can't trust you." And it was a choice that broke Seth's heart as she retreated back into the dark, along with his hope. The fear and doubt had won in the end.
"You cannot be trusted." Her voice was far crueler than death, as her voice became harsher and colder. "Why would I ever trust someone who killed me?" Paranoia and fear engulf her voice. For as much as Emma tried to hold on for the two, she was just as broken as Lucy was.
Broken by time, life, and deceit. Behind the mask of a soldier, she was still just a little girl, terrified of the cold world around her. "But I didn't-"
"You did! I saw it! I felt it! That arrow was yours! You did you did you did!" Seth felt as if the ground were crumbling beneath his feet. Everything had gone so wrong... everything. And the voice... that damned voice.
"...Don't use her voice..." Seth coldly whispered as the girl flinched.
"W-what?" Emma whispered, confusion and paranoia in her being.
"Don't use her voice, damn you!" Seth roared as he redoubled his grip. The young lady cried out in pain before her hatred returned. If only Seth had saw through her, he would have seen Lucy. Not his, but a Lucy nonetheless. Alas, the young man was still just a man. Inexperienced, weak and ultimately, fallible.
"Give her back!" He demanded as he tightened the grip, forcing a painful yelp. She was on her knees, with one of her arms locked in place.
"Never!" she snarled through clench teeth as Seth tightened the grip. "The flower head was a fool!" Seth felt his blood boil as he tightened the grip, forcing a groan out of her. "Hopeless, naïve little fool!"
"Be quiet."
"She never seen the bigger picture, always cowering behind my back when things go wrong! Lucy was a coward through and through!"
"I said quiet, damn you! Don't you dare insult her name!" Seth screamed.
"But even then, e-even if she was a spineless c-coward, she doesn't deserve what you've done!" Seth blinked as his grip withered.
"W-what?" He whispered; his voice quivered in terror.
"I did nothing to her. I tried to warn her over and over again, but she just won't listen. That girl just wouldn't listen! Damn her and her desperation!" She sneered disdainfully as Seth's hold shattered. It was barely even a challenge to break through after that, though Seth did not care. He simply could not as he stared back at the fearful and angered visage of Emma.
"W-what do you mean? I don't understand." Seth replied.
"Y-you," she pointed an accusing finger. Seth felt as if it was a spear aiming at his heart. "...you broke her heart." And he was right as he felt his heart have been struck down.
"I-I- what? N-no, n- no that is a lie!" He replied in a heartbeat. "I haven't done anything wrong to her! I..." He trailed off as understanding soon returned. "...this is about your past, isn't it?" Her silence was all he needed to scream.
"It wasn't me! Damn you two! I didn't do it! I didn't! Whatever happened to you two, I didn't do it! I have no part in it! Why can't you understand that?!" His heart thrummed wildly as he fought off the lead in his throat. Even breathing felt hard.
"And what are we supposed to do?" Emma asked, her eyes burning with anger and paranoia. "We've already died once. How else are we going to react?" Tears invaded her eyes, but she wasn't done yet.
"Do you even have the faintest idea what it felt like? To have your shard embedded in my heart? Trying to gasp for air, only for your own blood to drown you? What it's like to know you are dying and beyond saving? Can you even imagine that?" Emma shivers as she tries to warm herself up, rubbing her arms desperately as if to fight off the cold embrace.
Her eyes trembled, darting from side to side as if she was trying to find the nightmare that would claim her, only to find empty shadows. She tried to control her breathing, but even in this vain attempt, the young lady failed. Her frame trembles as the night goes on.
And Seth saw all of it. For just a brief moment, the young man wanted nothing more but to hug the frightened girl. He tried to fight against it, but the shattered and horrified look of the girl who stole his Lucy looked nothing like the thief he once envisioned. Just a desperate and terrified young lady.
"We died for a cause that had been forced down upon us. By the people we once thought friends! We died by your hands! Alone! How else are we supposed to take it?!" Emma cried out, tears escaping from her eyes as she glared madly at Seth.
"Tell me, damn you! How else am I supposed to explain to that girl that the one she fell with was the one who murdered us?!" Fury and sorrow intermingled as one. Her voice degraded to a horrifying degree as she continued to force out the words from her mouth.
"Y-you...you should have killed us like then." Seth's eyes widened, but she was not done. "At least that had been merciful. At least then we didn't have to argue who was the mad one... at least then we didn't have to hope." It burns. Every single word burns. "You... you lied to her. You lied and broke her heart." Emma softly whispered.
It was unfair. The world was sickeningly unfair. Her words were mad and utterly unjust, and yet Seth could not help but understand, no matter how he wished he didn't. But.... but why me? Even so, he could not accept it. There were still so many things he wanted to say, so many things to confess, yet Emma saw right through him and did not even give him the chance.
"You know, she even tried to convince me that you were different." Seth's throat tightened, guilt collapsing on his shoulders. "She tried to convince me that we can still have a family, even after all we've been through. That I was wrong... but I was right..." The acid in her voice burned his soul. "...I just have to be right." The sheer regret in her tone was simply too much.
Even she hoped to be wrong. The one who wanted nothing more to kill him hoped to be wrong. A lump formed in throat; his mouth felt dry. Seth tried to come up with a response. He tried to find the words, but he just couldn't, as his gaze dropped low.
The guilt simply wouldn't let him. His nose burned as he tried to fight off the tears forming in his eyes as a single thought tormented him. I failed her... I-I... hurt her. It hurts so much to acknowledge the mistake he unknowingly made. I even promised her...
The young man wanted nothing more but to strangle himself to death. The urge to tear out his chest just to remove the lump was almost too enticing. Yet through it all, there was one thing that he wanted to do the most. One that prevented him from giving up right then and there. ...I'm sorry... I am so sorry, Lucy. Please forgive me.
Seth turned his gaze up once more, mustering the courage and the strength he needed to speak out the words. But Emma was done. "You are no better than Kier." Her eyes bleed into gold, refueled slightly during the entire conversation.
"W-wait! I-"
"Die!" Emma roared as she flung the dagger with vekra, aiming at his right hand. Its mark was true as Seth grunted in pain. The shadow of death coldly approaches, yet he could not feel it. Seth could not fear death, for there was something far more terrifying than it. Death has to wait.
"It was not a lie!" Seth shouted as he narrowly avoided a stab aimed at his throat. "I meant it Lucy! I meant every single one of it!" He breathed hard as a kick slammed into his chest. "I love you!" Emma flinched before her glare redoubled.
"From the first day we met, I could not look away!" The dagger nicked his cheek, but the pain barely registered. "I was drawn by your eyes! By your snow white hair!" The dagger dug deep into his shoulder, but he held on.
"I fall in love by your kindness! You're clumsy and awkward speech! Your-"
"Shut up! Just be quiet and die, murderer!" Emma roared gutturally as she stabs into his leg this time. The pain barely hinders the young man as he continued to shout.
"I love you! Even through your scars and awful nicknames you've given me! Even if you constantly had to reprimand me with every treat I tried to give to the kids! I-"
"I said shut up!" He fell down hard as another stab landed on his remaining uninjured leg. Emma quickly mounted as she pointed the dagger down where his heart was. Seth manages to block with his arms, but the blood lost had rendered his strength weak. The dagger inches closer.
"I love you, Lucy. I love you." Seth struggled with every breath he took as Emma's terrifying scowl inched closer with the dagger in hand. "I didn't mean to lie. I truly didn't." He gasped as the guilt threatened to kill him first.
"I-if I knew it would hurt you so much, I would have never tried. I would have just stay put in that stall." Shimmering emerald eyes meet enrage gold as tears finally escaped his eyes. "I never meant to hurt you. Never." His arms were growing weaker now.
"Liar." She growled lowly as she clenches her mouth. Her teeth trembled from the pure pressure she exerted from them in rage.
"I'm sorry for making you c-cry. " The blade was beginning to cut through his shirt. "I-I'm so so-sorry." Seth gasped as the cold metal bite through his skin. "I-I shouldn't have co-come. I-I shouldn't have t-tried..." The world was so cold, yet even at door's death, the young maiden before him was hauntingly beautiful.
"... i-if I did, y-you wouldn't have to cry." It was the only regret Seth had. The only thing he could not change. He made her cry. And it ate him. The cold bite of steel was a candle to the roaring inferno of regret that consumed him. How Seth would have howled in pain.
Yet still, the man within the lad demanded him to withhold his scream. She deserves it. She did not need to hear his cries. Not after this betrayal, this treachery. It was the least he could do for her.
He stared right into her eyes one last time. Hatred infused gold stared down like a cruel God. His words did not reach her. Her hatred burns bright... and yet, even now, she was still beautiful. Even with that hideous glare, that awful snarl, and those twisted scars, she was still Lucy, even if that other one had taken over.
A small, sad smile graces his lips for the last time. "I'm sorry, L-Lucy... a-and... I love you." His arms finally gave out as he closed his eyes.